Letters to the Editor for April 20, 2019

Gas tax hijinks

To the Editor:

Is it legal for our elected officials to take SB 1 funds to make repairs to facilities and equipment when the gas tax was promoted on the idea that all funds would go directly to our roads? The county will get $24.5 million over five years and in one of those years will spend only 5 percent on roads. What a disgrace.

Tuolumne County implemented a $4 per vehicle registration fee some years ago with the promise that funds would go to road repairs. We later asked at a Board of Supervisors meeting and were told that the funding went to retrofit the road department diesel engines.

Have we been led to again?

Ed Anderson

Sonora

Biden doesn’t get it

To the Editor:

Joe Biden’s effort to justify his inappropriate touching of women is pathetic. Saying “he gets” that the personal space boundaries have been reset is ridiculous. I and every man in his generation have always known it is not appropriate to come up behind a woman, rub her on the shoulders, smell her hair, and kiss her on the head and neck.

This is OK only for husbands and wives and people in very close relationships. Mr. Biden would enhance his run for President if he would just say, “I was wrong, and I sincerely apologize to every woman I have made feel uncomfortable.” What Mr. Biden has proven is that he doesn’t get it at all.

Dave Bohnen

Sonora

Is this justice?

To the Editor:

Lady tries to run a fellow down twice and gets set to her room for 150 days. Anderson kills three people and tries to hide it and gets four years out, I bet, in less than two years.

We don’t need a new court house, just a coffee shop where the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney can meet and determine what sentence would be less of an inconvenience to the defendant.

Justice in Tuolumne County has become a laughing matter, in my opinion. If we ever get to vote on these folks again remember things like this. They happen all the time.

Steve Hayes

Soulsbyville

Thanks, officer

To the Editor:

On Thursday, Feb. 28, my wife and I were driving in downtown Sonora when our car broke down on Bradford Street next to Sonora Florist. It was not a legal parking spot. Cars turning onto Bradford Street from Stewart Street had to go around our car.

We immediately called AAA towing and were told there were a lot of calls ahead of us and that it would be awhile.

After being there for over an hour a Sonora Police Officer Scott Mallon, came by to see if he could help. He stayed with us for as long as he could and not long after he left the tow truck finally came.

Officer Mallon was concerned for our safety and he even tried to call to help us get faster service at AAA. He had a very calming effect on us and was truly a big help. So, we wanted to write this letter to thank him for all his support and to let our community know that we have caring people working to keep our town safe.

We have lived in this community for over 40 years and can still say that this is a great place to live. So thank you again Officer Mallon for being there for us.

Ken and Sue Ingram

Sonora

Divine politics

To the Editor:

Steve Bannon’s war on the Catholic Church is ostensibly about the shameful numbers of pedophiles among the ranks of the ordained. He is critical of the way Pope Francis is handling the scandal, and is actively attempting to remove him from office because he is too liberal.

I assume that he means to set the church back to the good old days of no-nonsense authoritarian rule. This style of administration eventually led to Martin Luther’s Protestant revolution and the Spanish Inquisition; and ultimately resulted in a loss of church political power and a lot of hard feelings from the people who were tortured by the Inquisition. Even though removing Pope Francis sounds like a bad idea to me, Bannon is actively working on it.

In a recent interview regarding his complaints against Pope Francis. Bannon, among other things, implied what it takes to be favored in a divine way. He said that Donald Trump only won the 2016 election through “divine providence.”

Even though you might question Bannon’s ability to judge what is divine and what is not, Trump also won the support of religious leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr. and his followers who are sometimes referred to as “the evangelicals.”

This suggests to me that the religion of love, compassion and empathy that I grew up with is being replaced with one that is more in tune with Trump’s expression of reality through fear, hate and anger. If that is true for religion in this nation, it certainly is not true for what our founders expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution.